Radio Forth is a group of two

Independent Local Radio Independent Local Radio is the collective name given to commercial radio stations in the United Kingdom. As a result of the buyouts and mergers permitted by the Broadcasting Act 1990, and deregulation resulting from the Communications Act 2003, ...

stations serving

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Lothians Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Scot ...

and

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

. Radio Forth is owned and operated by Bauer, based at studios in

and forms part of Bauer's

Hits Radio Hits Radio is a network of 25 contemporary hit radio stations in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK. As of October 2022, the network has a combined reach of 6.6 million weekly listeners according to RAJAR. Overvie ...

network and

Greatest Hits Radio Greatest Hits Radio is a classic hits radio network in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer. Overview The network launched on 5 January 2015 as the "Bauer City 2 Network", and rebranded on 7 January 2019 due to the success of Rad ...

network of local stations.

History

Radio Forth was launched on 22 January 1975 by current chairman Richard Findlay, whose opening speech included the words: ''This, for the very first time, is Radio Forth''. The first presenter on air was breakfast show host Steve Hamilton. Other presenters included Steve Jack, Bill Torrance on the day time shows including drive time slot and also had a special night time slots including a once a week show for the public to call into the show and discuss their issues and problems. The station is also well known for its Radio Forth charity auctions where it auctioned off donated item, services and what have you with all the funds raised going to a local charity or providing much needed funds for causes throughout the broadcast area. In 1990, Forth created a second station on its AM frequency. Before this, Radio Forth was broadcast as a single station on both FM and AM frequencies although in 1984 Radio Forth had been the first

station in the UK to operate a split service when it created Festival City Radio to provide coverage of that year's

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh F ...

. The FM station was renamed ''Radio Forth RFM'' and aimed at a younger age group, while ''Max AM'' was designed for over 35s. The FM station was later renamed ''Forth FM'' and then in the mid-late 90s, ''Max AM'' was later renamed ''Forth AM'' to match its sister station. In 2000, both stations were relaunched as '' 97.3 Forth One'' and ''1548 FORTH2''. Many changes occurred at this time, including new presenters and a revamped station sound. Forth 2 was redesigned as an adult contemporary music station while Forth One continued to play chart and contemporary music for under 35s. Radio Forth was owned by Scottish Radio Holdings until 3 June 2005 when British media group EMAP took over. In January 2008, the company's radio business was brought out by the German-based Bauer group. Most of Radio Forth's locally produced programming airs on

Forth 1 Forth 1 is an Independent Local Radio station based in Edinburgh, Scotland, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Edinburgh, Lothian and Fife. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audience o ...

, consisting of 13 hours on weekdays and 4 hours at weekends, with live football commentaries airing on Forth 2. All three stations also carry local news, sport and traffic bulletins every day. Some networked programming is produced by Radio Forth for broadcast across Scotland and northern England, alongside output from sister stations such as

Radio Clyde Radio Clyde is a group of two Independent Local Radio stations serving Glasgow and West Central Scotland. Radio Clyde is owned and operated by Bauer Media Audio UK, Bauer, based at studios in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire and forms part of Baue ...

Clydebank Clydebank ( gd, Bruach Chluaidh) is a town in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, it borders the village of Old Kilpatrick (with Bowling and Milton beyond) to the west, and the Yoker and Drumchapel ...

and

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Radio stations established in 1975

History

See also

External links